-How would you build your "Xtreme" System if you won the sponsored hardware. I would incorporate the hardware into a computer I found in a barn. Its an old server case that I would include water cooling for the video card and the phase change for the cpu. This would be built off a current build I have. The case will be modded with the usual window but will be made so it looks like the opening was busted out of the case. The front door will be made to match this design and the case will have a very custom paint job to back this all up. Basicly part of the goal will be to make a phasechange case that looks good. -What is your "Xtreme Design" system's goal. To build the fastest computer using the equipment provided. Proving that the equipment is not only easy to overclock, but that it can go to Xtreme speeds as well. To prove that like many other things that less power can still provide Xtreme performance. Overall the idea will be to make a reliable system that can run stable with Xtreme overclocking without needing to be refilled with nitrogen or healium. Something that is totally self efficiant and still cabable of the Xtreme speeds that gamers yearn for.-How ASUS' "Xtreme Design" motherboard features help your system and daily life. Using Turbo V Autotuning will make it easier to find the Xtreme limitations of the CPU and Memmory. Once determined the Turbo V remote will allow me to change the settings on the fly so the overclocking will only be used when needed. The T.Probe will allow me to keep the overclock stable while still allowing Xtreme overclocks.-Anything else that convinces us to pick your idea from the participating forums below.I have built gaming computers for over 15 years now. I run a small non for profit lan center that me and my friends get together and play at all the time. I have built every Xtreme kind of computer including liquid nitrogen. I want to use my skills to show what this hardware can do.

The silver Beast on top of the shelf was the original Vapochiller under the giant open computer case. The silver case on the far left is an old Antec Dragon case

This is what the drawing looked like on the side of the case:

This is what it looked like after i did the cuttout:

This case was found in my brother in laws barn. even with the rust on the equipment it had inside, it still turned on. It had a 486 CPU, an AT style Powersupply and was running an old version of linux.

Just a quick update. I have ordered lights and cables I’m going to need off of eBay. These include an LED string of 60 hyper white led’s and extension cables for the Video Card power ports. I am working on getting a second Asus 260 video card. If anyone has any suggestions other than new egg please let me know. I have also (after browsing all over the internet) found all of the sponsor’s logos in .eps format and have sent them off to have custom vinyl made for my window. I will show more work pictures here shortly.

So you're building a machine from scratch then? I assume you're going to add a glass/plastic panel for airflow reasons where the giant hole is. What exactly is the goal? (I'm at work and youtube is blocked).

This case was found in my brother in laws barn. even with the rust on the equipment it had inside, it still turned on. It had a 486 CPU, an AT style Powersupply and was running an old version of linux.

Not that long ago kids would look in a barn and find an old, unwanted, rusting car they could take and lovingly hotrod. Today it's old 486s running Linux...

khands wrote:So you're building a machine from scratch then? I assume you're going to add a glass/plastic panel for airflow reasons where the giant hole is. What exactly is the goal? (I'm at work and youtube is blocked).

The goal will be to use the Xtreme design hardware along with a vaporchiller and put it all together in a nice package. this case will handle it all. then to prove with the hardware providing you can build an amazing gaming computer with agressive overclocks.

UberGerbil wrote:Not that long ago kids would look in a barn and find an old, unwanted, rusting car they could take and lovingly hotrod. Today it's old 486s running Linux...

lol.. i couldnt be happier with the find. however.. i think if it was an old 1978 firebird with a 400 v8 in it my brother in law would have kept it.

So how do you go from AT to ATX and prep your computer for paint?First you draw out what you want to make on an old envelope.Then you draw it out on an aluminum plate and start cutting.and keep cutting....And drill some big holes:Thanks Jay for the help.Then, while your case is apart you start sandblasting. EVERYTHINGIt takes forever so you enlist friends like Eric here:Gotta make sure the paint sticks so you keep blasting:Unfortunately the sandblaster box wasn't big enough. I'm still cleaning the sand out of my ears.But when you're done and you rivet it all back together....Just one more finishing touch:Definitely worth the effort!

[CENTER]CHECK OUT THE PAINT!I can't say this enough... the sponsors... they ROCK!The LED strip... ooooooo SHINYThe vinyl stickers for the window came out awsome.. i know they don't look like it on here but they are silver[/CENTER]

Thanks to all who are following this and the very kind words. I am sorry I have been very busy but a lot of updates are coming the next few days, I am about to post a very long one about all the cool features of the Asus P55 motherboard. i have a very big announcement:

Ok so I finally put all the hardware together to do a test setup and make sure that everything is functioning correctly before I add the water blocks and the phase change cooling.

The Asus P7P55D Premium motherboard, an amazing motherboard.Ok so I have worked with hundreds of motherboards before in the past. And I think it’s fair to say there are some very cool very useful features built into the Asus P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard. It looks and feels like a very a well made product which I have come to expect from anything I buy from Asus. But there are features here that most people overlook, that are very useful indeed.

First and most obvious is the Turbo V dongle. If nothing else this gives you a power button right on your monitor that allows you to turn the system on and off. Most people would be happy with that but I love the fact that I will be able to change the over clocking by the touch of a button on the same panel on the fly. I can even modify the bus speed settings on the fly. Asus definitely was thinking about over clocker’s when they made this board. You can also set the EPU settings on the fly. Letting you save energy at your leisure.

Speaking of over clocking on the top right corner of the board itself are 3 switches. These switches allow you to change the advanced CPU, Integrated Memory Controller (IMC), and DRAM over voltages in the bios.

You turn the board on and an amazing thing happens. So simple I’m surprised I haven’t seen it before but am very happy that someone finally added it to their board. As the Asus P7P55D Deluxe board boots up it has Post state LEDs that actually light up as they test each individual area on the board before it posts. It starts next to the CPU and then the DRAM followed by the GPU and finally the BOOT Device LED. Once it starts to boot all the LEDs are out and the screen starts to post. I had an issue with my memory clock. I instantly knew what it was by simply watching the LEDs and seeing it got hung up on the DRAM_LED.

Speaking of the memory, and me having a problem with my clock speed, I simply hit the MemOK button and the Asus P7P55D board started doing some amazing things. Basically I turned the system back on after modifying the clock speed on the Memory; it stopped at the DRAM_LED and just stayed there. So I figure why not let’s see what this button here does (Kind of like a big red button for the motherboard). Suddenly the board turns itself off, and as I start to think it failed it turns back on. It starts to test itself with the CPU as normal but when it gets to the memory it just sits there and blinks. I’m curious, so I keep watching and sure enough it turns itself off again. It does this like 5 times each time the blinking LED gets faster. On the 6th boot it turns on. I hit the delete key and sure enough it has automatically changed the memory settings to what it believes is the best the settings for my memory. It was very odd yet it saved me rebooting and trying over and over again to get those settings. I think Asus is on to some awesome ideas here.

Like I said the board is full of features without having anything plugged into it, it has 8 USB ports in the back, along with a standard ps2 keyboard and mouse port, optical and SPDIF out puts, 2 gigabit network ports, 10 channel audio out with mic port, a place for the Turbo V to go through, and of course last but not least is the 1394 port. This doesn’t include the fact that it has 4 more USB ports, a serial port, 6 SATA ports, 2 ESATA ports, a EIDE port, 2xPCIe 2.0 x16 ports, 2x PCI Ports, 2x PCIe 2.0 X1 ports, 4 DDR 3 ram Ports, a power button onboard, a reset button onboard, a place to plug in all your own LEDs and buttons and of course the socket 1156 Intel port. There isn’t anything more you could ask for in a motherboard. There is a lot more to post about the over clocking capabilities of this board and I will be posting more information on that in the not so distant future, but as I was testing this system I started making notes and I had to share them with all of you. I am impressed with this board and I’m not easily impressed when it comes to computer equipment.

I have had water cooled computers for over 13 years. I currently run 3 out of my LAN center and this computer will be my 4th. All of the systems I have are made by Koolance. Over the years i have come to trust the quality and prices of the company and have built more than my fair share of water cooled computers using their components. This contest is no exception. I already have a Koolance EHX-1020 radiator for the top of the case and a Koolance VID-NX295 on my Nvidia 295 GTX video card. I needed a few parts to be able to finish this project including a new pump, reservoir and water block for the Asus 260 video card(this will be running my physix). I called Koolance and talked to Tim. he helped me figure out the best solution. After talking to him and showing him this contest they agreed to be a sponsor. Today I received all the items I needed to finish this project.Included was a Koolance GPU-200 water block for the video card, memory heat sinks for the video card, a Koolance RP-1000BK reservoir and pump and misc fittings and elbows to put it all together.I couldnt wait to put the cooler on the video card.All Done, took maybe 15 minutes and it looks awsome. i can't wait to see how it will perform.

I really mean this when I say it, Koolance is Amazing. Every time I have dealt with them I have walked away happy, whether it be because of their excellent customer service or there amazing hardware. I am proud to have them as a sponsor and I know my equipment will be that much cooler using their gear. If you’re thinking about water cooling your system definitely check them out.http://www.koolance.com

This is just a teaser picture. I have like 50 others to post but was having internet issues this weekend so didnt have a chance to post them. I am at work and am doing this on a quick break i willl post the rest when i get a chance later today. It looks amazing and should be ready for overclocking in a little time. check back here later today for a video and alot more pics of the build and finished case.

ok so my camera has been misplaced and i lost about 50 pics going from empty case to Phase Change installed. These are pics added to the case with just the phase change installed and the 5.25 bays set in:THANK YOU AGAIN SPONSORSWhat was that they said about clean workstations... Time to make the polyuerathane foam cuttouts.Didnt have time to clean up and being its my lan center i just told everyone to leave it alone. This is what the bottom of the expansion chamber looks like. nothing special but it has very good results as long as you insulate everything.

Time are tough employees cost money, so i got cheap help:He's a natural!Time to set up all the insulation. Need to make sure there is absolutly no condinsation that makes its way to the board.Now that it's insulated it can be put inside the caseTime to start adding water lines. i personaly have found that airhose works the best for this. you may not be able to see through it but it is near imposible to kink.

I stand 5'10" this case is gigantic. i know.. i know.. thats a mess of wires. it has a long way to go in this picture.Preparing to add water.Don't forget to add a drain:Make shift funnel ftw.Time to leak test. Please note that normally I wouldn’t have hardware (motherboard, video cards) installed for this part, but I leak tested them outside the case. If you ever add water-cooling yourself the best practice is to put everything together and run the system for 24 hours to check for leaks before you put it anywhere near the hardware. You can jumper the green wire to a ground wire on your power supply to make it run without any other hardware installed. i used Koolance for my entire water-cooling system as you can see. It went together very easily and looks very nice. I also used distilled water with Koolance water additive.

It is so hard to take good pictures of this case. the metal paint is reflective along with the vinyl stickers showing off the sponsors. Here's a few more pictures. i will try to borrow a friends camera and take a hd video of everything. Should give a better idea of what it all looks like. I will be overclocking shortly. I should be able to use some of the overclocks that some of the other contestants have used as a base and work from there. I can't wait to see what this hardware can do with this cooler. I run a computer club for the local highschool on tuesday and thursday nights. Tonight they will help me overclock and hopefully help me vidoe tape.

I know the contest is over but i wanted to share some of the results i was able to get once i got a chance to do some overclocking. This is what i was able to get the bios to register the temp of the cpu. i don't believe it was actually colder than -50 at the time but the sensors built into most motherboards cant give an acurate temp below 0. still looks cool. I have done hundreds of benchmarks sense the 24th. The 3 im posting here are:

Vantage CPU at 2.8(no overclocking:3D Mark 06 CPU at 2.8(no overclock):Vantage CPU at 3.37(570mhz OC):3D Mark 06 CPU at 3.37(570mhz OC):Vantage CPU at 4.21(1400mhz OC):3D Mark 06 CPU at 4.21(1400mhz OC):I had to deal with quite a few glitches which is normal when working with any form of active cooling. All of them have been worked out and the system is running well. I still can’t get PC Probe to show the correct info.

I would like to point out that I am running a Nvidia 295 gtx as my primary and using the Asus 260 card for physx. I also will only benchmark what i can get to be stable after 4 hours of prime 95. At this point I believe that the thresh hold of my CPU is 4.21 ghz. That’s with all 4 cores running with hyper-threading turned on.

I want to thank ALL sponsors for their hand in this contest including(but in no specific order);

AsusSamsungIntelNvidiaAntecG.SkillRazer

I also want to put a giant THANK YOU out to Asus and staff included in putting this contest together. I don't think you guys understand how much you help the modding community by hosting these contests. i know that me working on this system has inspired at least 4 of my friends to build new computers. THANK YOU.

I also need to put out a Giant thank you out to Koolance for sponsoring my case. The water-cooling system that they provided me is amazing and made keeping the video cards cool that much easier. Thanks guys.

I want to thank my family and friends. My fiancé and son have seen a lot less of me over the last month due to the time I have put into this contest and I have gotten no complaints from either of them. My friends I have blown off more times than I care to admit and yet instead of upset they are proud of what I have built.

I know this information is being posted after final posts where requested. But it all needed to be said. GOOD LUCK to all of the other contestants!